1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a connector in which metal terminals are retained in a double manner, and more particularly to a connector comprising female metal terminals, a housing having terminal receiving holes and a terminal retaining member-receiving portion, and a terminal retaining member adapted to be provisionally and completely retained in the terminal retaining member-receiving portion.
2. Description of the Related Art
A connector has been used for connecting wire harnesses together or for connecting a wire harness to an electrical equipment. The connector includes a housing made of a synthetic resin, and metal terminals (connection terminals) each connected to an end portion of a wire can be received and held in this housing. When the connector is fitted to a mating connector, the metal terminals are electrically connected respectively to metal terminals of the mating connector.
The metal terminals received and held in the housing are retained in a double manner by a terminal retaining member so as not to be withdrawn from the housing. Furthermore, when the metal terminal is kept in a half-fitted condition relative to the housing, the movement of the terminal retaining member is limited so that such a half-fitted condition can be detected.
The structure relating to the double retaining of the metal terminal, as well as the structure relating to the detection of the half-fitted condition, is disclosed, for example, in the following Patent Literatures 1 and 2.
Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent No. 3,193,271
Patent Literature 2: JP-A-2000-268915
In the conventional technique disclosed in Patent Literature 1, the metal terminal inserted in the housing is not prevented from movement in a withdrawing direction before the terminal retaining member is shifted to a completely-retained condition. Therefore, there is a fear that the metal terminal may be withdrawn from the housing (In the case of the multi-pole connector, the metal terminals often are not mounted at one time, and the terminal retaining member is kept in a provisionally-retained condition, and in this condition the assembling process shifts from one step to another. Therefore, in such a situation in which the metal terminal may be withdrawn from the housing, the manufacture of the wire harness will be adversely affected.
Furthermore, in the conventional technique disclosed in Patent Literature 1, the movement of the metal terminal in the withdrawing direction is not prevented as described above, and therefore in the case of the multi-pole connector, when the terminal retaining member is shifted from the completely-retained condition to the provisionally-retained condition, there is a fear that even those metal terminals, for example, which are not required for maintenance, may also be withdrawn from the housing (that is, the efficiency of the maintenance operation is low).
Furthermore, in the conventional technique disclose in Patent Literature 1, the metal terminal need to have several projecting portions so that it can be retained in a double manner. Therefore, there is encountered a problem that the metal terminal itself has an increased size because of the formation of these projecting portions. The increased size of the metal terminal leads to a problem that the connector is also increased in size.
On the other hand, in the conventional technique disclosed in Patent Literature 2, the metal terminal is inserted into the housing, and is primarily retained by the terminal retaining member. Thereafter, the metal terminal is pushed up by the terminal retaining member, so that the metal terminal is secondarily retained by the housing. Therefore, the housing need to have a sufficiently large space to receive the metal terminals, and a relatively large clearance is formed between the metal terminal and a terminal receiving hole. This clearance may invite a disadvantage that the metal terminal may be inclined, and if the metal terminal is thus inclined, a retaining force provided by the primary retaining is lowered. When withdrawing such inclined metal terminal from the housing, for example, for maintenance purposes, there is encountered a problem that the inclined metal terminal is caught by the housing, and therefore can not be withdrawn from the housing.
Furthermore, in the conventional technique disclosed in Patent Literature 2, the housing need to have the large space for receiving the metal terminals as described above, and therefore there is encountered a problem that the connector is increased in size.
Furthermore, in the conventional technique disclosed in Patent Literature 2, the connector is constructed such that the metal terminal is pushed up by the terminal retaining member as described above, and therefore in the case of the multi-pole connector, all of the metal terminals must be pushed up at one time, and therefore there is encountered a problem that the efficiency of the assembling operation is adversely affected.